The invention relates to apparatus for and a method of producing meshware through the agency of needles movable in a cylinder, a sinker being disposed between every two needles parallel thereto.
In one known apparatus or device of this kind, only the needles move, the sinkers remaining stationary. Machines of this kind have, for instance, a stationary cylinder and a rotatable cambox provided with the needle cam. A yarn or a metal wire is fed to the needles. Preferably, the needles are latch needles. Stitch length depends upon the depth or extent of the draw -- i.e. upon the maximum distance between the needle hook of the needle in its lowest position and the sinker endface over which the yarn is drawn. The needles have butts which are guided and actuated in a cambox trick. The trick serves as the cam for the needles which are distributed around the periphery of the cylinder and which are pushed out to the maximum extend to take up yarn from the needle trick, and then descend for stitch-forming. This vertical needle motion is produced, as the cambox or cylinder rotates, by means of the trick and the needle butts guided therein.
As a rule, the depth of draw in the production of meshware is determined by the wishes of clients; consequently, the cam has a predetermined rise which the needle butts have to carry out once or several times during each revolution. Clearly, the pressure of the needle butts on the trick wall when the machine operates is greater in proportion as the cam is steeper and as the machine runs faster. However, the machine is required to run fast since the speed of machine operation directly governs the output of end product. Unfortunately, the maximum speed of the machine is limited by cam steepness, for if speed is excessive the pressure of the needle butts on the trick wall becomes excessive and the needle butts break.